The recently-retired Adlington (pictured) "has experience to share to help us drive up performances," according to Furniss, who took over as national performance director in April after coaching Adlington at the last two Olympics.

"More than anyone else she [Adlington] knows what it takes to deliver," he said.

"I see the real strength in Rebecca is to teach our future swimmers and coaches what is possible and I'm talking about mindset and belief.

"She can still be a massive asset to the sport."

British Swimming had their funding cut after failing to meet their target of five medals in the pool, winning just one silver medal and two bronze, both of which were won by Adlington herself, who also took double Olympic gold in Beijing five years ago.

Furniss coached Adlington to two gold medals at Beijing 2008 and two bronze medals at London 2012

Spice, who was appointed as national performance director at the same time as Furniss took over his role, knows that British Swimming have to justify the public money being spent on the programme.

"We've been in post for three months now and we are clear with what needs to be done," he said.

"There has been a cut in funding but from my point of view we still have targets to achieve.

"Without National Lottery support, and through the support of the public, we wouldn't be in the position we are in now.

"What we need to do now is ensure value for money across the programme.

"Both Bill and I agree we have to get more bang for our buck and from that point of view we are looking at the structure of the programme post summer and there will be some changes but as far as we are concerned this summer will look after itself."

The Great Britain team will travel to Barcelona for the International Swimming Federation (FINA) World Championships next month, but Spice has insisted that the transition phase is still ongoing, and results cannot be expected immediately.

"We've made a few tweaks ahead of the World Championships but given that we haven't been in post very long it will be what it will be," he said.

"The key for us is that our decisions and impacts that we want will be post summer, in September.

"That's not to say for a minute we think that this year is not important - it is and we will be focusing on getting the best results we can.

Olympic silver medallist Michael Jamieson will be one of Great Britain's medal hopefuls at next month's World Championships

"We have some good staff in the programme, some excellent support staff around the programme and the key for us will to turn those very good staff into world class staff so we can start to deliver on the ground.

"There is a lot to get my teeth into; particularly three areas - coaching, psychology and competition structure.

"Not enough investment has been made into the development of our coaches. We have some good coaches and some world class coaches - we want to give them all the opportunity to become world class.

"We will increase resource into sports psychology not just focusing on pressure competition preparation but also what it means to be part of the team and wearing the GB kit."

Furniss added: "Our outlook ahead will be to run a smaller tighter ship that is performance driven.

"We have had a reduction in funding but that isn't a negative thing, it allows for a more concentrated programme."

"London hurt, we need to deliver on public money.

" There are a lot of talented swimmers and coaches on the programme – that showed in the number of finalists we had in London but we now need to build on that with our new programme.

"We have picked ourselves up, learnt from it and now we're moving on."

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